Renewable-energy companies growing in Louisiana

Kathrine SchmidtStaff Writer

Sunday

Sep 6, 2009 at 1:00 AM

LOCKPORT — Housed in a metal building on small-town street, Effective Solar Products looks much like the machine and oilfield shops that surround it.Until you see the wind turbine outside the stockroom door.But that’s business as usual for Aaron Angelette, owner of Effective Solar, a distributor and installer of solar and wind systems for Terrebonne, Lafourche and New Orleans. “It was unique,” said Angelette, 43, originally trained as an electrician. “The technology itself pretty much amazes me.”Renewable-energy companies like Effective Solar are growing in Louisiana. They’ve come into the spotlight with the Obama administration’s aim to create “green jobs” as part of developing energy policy. Such programs would also restrict the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by companies to combat warming of the earth’s atmosphere, which many scientists say will cause irreversible harm to animals, plants and people.While usually portrayed as opposites, the oil-and-gas and solar power economies coexist in south Louisiana, Angelette said. He estimates that 60 percent of his business is oilfield-related.About 70 percent of the Gulf of Mexico’s production platforms use some kind of solar power or small-scale wind systems, Angelette said. Chiefly, the self-generated panels allow companies to turn off production valves from a great distance, without the cost of electrifying or transporting bulky and costly generators to remote areas.The same goes for pipelines and oil wells, where solar instrumentation powers signs and signals on industrial canals.The company used to perform maintenance on these systems, but now that work is completed by service firms who deal with valve controls and other flow mechanisms on drilling rigs and production platforms.That work has brought the company as far as west Texas.In addition, Effective Solar has done work for Lafourche Parish to install solar lighting on public boat launches. The Larose Civic Center uses a solar-powered pool heater to extend swimming hours.Other uses for solar: Batteries that tell crane operators whether their loads are too heavy, water level indicators for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and electricity to run televisions in deer stands.Private citizens make up a growing business segment. While fewer than a dozen homes in Terrebonne and Lafourche have solar electric systems, the idea has grown in popularity throughout the New Orleans area.The cost varies widely depending on sizes of families and homes. A system for a 200,000 foot house with a family of four would likely range from $25,000 to $50,000 to install partial coverage and $75,000 to $100,000 for full coverage.The system is expected to pay for itself in five to seven years, Angelette said. It can’t stop energy bills completely – many utilities charge a minimal fee to remain connected the to the grid – but it can drastically cut down on maintenance costs. Geothermal is also a Louisiana possibility, he said. But “solar is the hot market to be in.”At Madewood Plantation near Napoleonville, history coexists with new technology: The 1846-era bed and breakfast was recently outfitted with solar power.Owner Keith Marshall said he was already considering an alternative means of power when a $3,800 electric bill for Aug. 2008 really pushed him over the edge.The system, which sits in a nearby rose garden, preventing damage to Madewood’s historic roof, cost about $60,000 to install, Marshall said. He hopes to recoup his investment in seven to eight years.The system, aimed at reducing the structure’s energy cost by one-third, has gotten mainly positive reviews.“They love it,” Marshall said. “Our guests and a lot of people who travel these days are looking for green accommodations.”Supporters of green jobs foresee this new economy leaving behind the warts of oil and gas, and have optimistic predictions about its effect on the nation and on Louisiana. A 2009 study by the Center for American Progress says investing $2.2 billion in the state could create 29,000 jobs, according to Repower Louisiana, a group aimed at passing the legislation and part of former vice president Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection. According to a 2009 study from the Pew Charitable Trusts, Louisiana had more than 10,000 people employed in the clean energy industry as of 2007, and between 1998 and 2007, the so-called “green jobs” grew at a rate of 19.5 percent, while overall jobs in the state grew by 3 percent.But subsidizing green energy, while adding taxes to the oil-and-gas sector, would likely come at the expense of some conventional-energy jobs that drive the state economy, including Houma-Thibodaux’s oil-service businesses. The scale is also nowhere comparable: Effective Solar only employs four people, while in 2008 oil-and-gas jobs made up 7.1 percent of the total metro area’s workforce of 97,000, or just shy of 7,000. That count doesn’t include feeder industries like shipbuilding.“The Obama Administration would like you to think it’s all additive,” said Eric Smith, associate director of the Entergy-Tulane Energy Institute at Tulane University. “You don’t even need to tax the service companies. If you hit oil companies hard enough, the refineries hard enough, you destroy the driver for the whole existing economy.”More incremental solutions are likely more realistic, and entrepreneurs and researchers statewide are looking to develop these. Smith said he’s heard of start-ups looking to use liquefied natural gas to power trucks in the oilfield business, attach new wind turbines to generate energy on old production platforms and produce geothermal energy from old gas wells. A research coalition made up of universities, including Nicholls State, is looking into possibilities around Louisiana.“These are all pretty basic research projects,” Smith said. “They’re 10 years away from anything practical, but you have to start somewhere.”Staff Writer Kathrine Schmidt can be reached at 857-2204 or kathrine.schmidt@houmatoday.com. Follow her on Twitter as Bayoubizreview

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